Prestatyn arsonist gets 30 years

Prestatyn arson attacks: 'exceptional wickedness'

The judge who today sentenced Melanie Smith to 30 years in prison for murdering five members of a family at a flat in Prestatyn has described the attack as "exceptional wickedness'.

For those who had to hear the evidence of the 999 calls, the horror of those moments in the flat upstairs as Lee-Anna and Liam faced the awful inevitability of their imminent deaths, will be forever etched on their memories.

– Mr Justice Griffith Williams

Lee-Anna Shiers, 20, her four-year-old nephew, Bailey, and two-year-old niece, Skye, were trapped in their upstairs flat and died in the attack in October last year.

Firefighters managed to rescue Ms Shiers's 15-month-old son Charlie and his father Liam Timbrell, 23, but they died in hospital.

You continue to portray yourself as a victim, blinding yourself to the sufferings of the real victims in this case and failing to at least acknowledge that it was your deliberate act which started the fire.

– Mr Justice Griffith Williams

Smith, who lived in the flat below the victims in Maes y Groes was found guilty of five counts of murder by a jury at Mold Crown Court last Tuesday.